asked the Secretary of State for Scotland when he intends to publish a White Paper on the working of the legislation on mental health.

My right hon. Friend hopes to publish a discussion paper as early as possible in 1979 following a review now being undertaken of Scottish mental health legislation.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of the total nursing staff in National Health Service hospitals is engaged exclusively in the care of the mentally ill or handicapped; what this represents in terms of nursing staff per 100 patients; and what are the comparable figures for all other patients in general hospitals.

Twenty-four per cent., which represents 51 nursing staff per 100 patients. The comparable figures for general hospitals are 66·7 per cent. and 128, respectively.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of National Health Service beds is occupied by mentally ill or mentally handicapped persons; and what percentage of total consultants works with such patients.

The percentages are 45·5 and 12·5, respectively.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish in theOfficial Report a table showing the names and ages of all mental hospitals, the number of wards in each with more than 50 beds, the progress made in replacing these hospitals and eliminating such large wards in the last decade, and capital investment plans for the next five years.

A list of the mental hospitals in Scotland showing the date of the original building is given below but the dates quoted are of limited significance since virtually all of these hospitals have been substantially improved and extended since they were first opened. Information about the size of wards is not available centrally. Much of the upgrading and new building carried out since 1948 has been undertaken specifically to reduce over-crowding and to provide smaller ward units.Future health service capital investment plans for major building schemes were announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland in the House on 2nd May 1977 and included a number of schemes to improve the mental health services in Scotland. In addition, health boards finance smaller schemes from their ordinary capital programme allocations.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the percentage drop in salary for a ward sister, a staff nurse, a qualified nurse and an auxiliary nurse

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the weekly cost of feeding a patient in a mental hospital; and what is the comparable figure in a general hospital.

In 1976–77, the latest year for which figures are available the average sum spent on provisions at psychiatric hospitals was £4·68 per patient week and at all hospitals other than psychiatric £5·37 per week.These averages conceal a wide range of costs for individual hospitals, from £3·54 to £6·34 for psychiatric hospitals and from £2·96 to over £8 for other hospitals. These variations reflect local circumstances; it seems likely that the lower average costs in psychiatric and long-stay hospitals reflects also factors such as the lower turnover of patients, the higher occupancy rate, the age of the patients and the generally lower levels of physical activity in these hospitals.